Gorbachev defends pace of his reforms in Stanford speech

STANFORD -- Stressing his commitments to both the rule of law and
practical politics, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev told a Stanford
audience May 9 that he intentionally had tried to "gain time" for democracy
and had brought about the only bloodless revolution in Russian history.

Speaking through an interpreter to 9,500 people drenched in the mid-day
sun of Frost Amphitheater, the former Soviet president revealed some of the
motivations behind his reform tactics and defended himself against criticism
that he was an indecisive leader.

With a grin, he promised more revelations in his memoirs.

"I hope that when this book appears, you'll be willing to expend a certain
sum of money to acquire it," he said.

Gorbachev also reiterated his disappointment that the Soviet Union had not
remained one nation. Still, he said, he saw "encouraging signs and
tendencies" that Russia can be transformed into "a modern law-based state."

The crowd was more subdued than the thousands who waited for a chance to
glimpse Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, during their two- hour campus visit in
June 1990. It began queuing up to get into the amphitheater about two hours
before the lecture began, with the line eventually extending to the Stanford
Museum.

"It was kind of like a Russian bread line, wasn't it?" quipped Susan
Moranz of Woodside.

Invited to campus as the Herman Phleger Visiting Professor of Law,
Gorbachev was introduced by Paul Brest, dean of the law school, who reminded
the audience that Gorbachev was trained as a lawyer at Moscow State
University.

The plotters of the August coup against him tried to "clothe themselves in
the trappings of constitutionalism," Brest said. "This in itself was the
product of the transformation President Gorbachev had wrought in Soviet
society."

Gorbachev's 32-minute lecture, titled "The Rule of Law: Our New Frontier,"
concerned the tensions between practical politics, and respect for law and
justice in leadership. He focused on his own situation from 1985 until his
resignation last December.

He stopped abruptly for about 30 seconds when two demonstrators, wearing
T-shirts that said "Mao more than ever," made their way across the width of
the amphitheater carrying a banner that said: "Phony communism is dead. Long
live real communism."

The audience booed them and warmly applauded Gorbachev when he began
again. Police escorted the demonstrators out of the amphitheater, questioned
them and released them.

"Politics is the art of the possible, the emergence of agreed interests
through a process of choice," Gorbachev said.

"The choice was made in principle. That was the main thing. There were
failures, errors, illusions, but the impulse to change things kicked in and
things started to move. From the very outset I saw the task as being one of
unfettering the democratic process. Hence, we set our sights on respect for
democratic rules, on getting people involved in genuine political activity:
Hence, the proclamation of glasnost and the struggle for its implementation.

"But under our conditions, this was possible only through the party and
with the party's help. This paradox, as things turned out, contained a major
threat to the cause of perestroika."

By 1988, he said, he knew partial reforms could not succeed and that
"everything hinged on the political system and on de facto omnipotence of the
party apparatus."

"Here I want to stress one point of principle which explains much that
happened afterward," Gorbachev said. "I'm referring to the relationship
between politics and morality.

"From the very onset of the crisis I tried to avoid violently explosive
resolution of the contradictions. I swore to myself, as I stated in public
more than once, that I would do everything possible to ensure that for the
first time in my country's history, cardinal transformations would take place
in a more or less peaceable form without bloodshed, without the inevitable
division of society, without civil war.

"Therefore, I tried to use tactical moves to gain time to give the
democratic movement a chance to get stronger. As president of the country I
had many powers, including emergency ones, and more than once people tried to
make me use them, tried to push me into an extremist position," he said.

He refused, he said, because "I simply could not betray myself. . . .

"There is not and cannot be rule of law without morality," Gorbachev said.
"It is no accident that in both Russian and English the words "right" and
"righteousness" have the same root."

Some have accused him of being indecisive, he said.

"To me, decisiveness means sticking to my guns, pursuing profound
transformations, at the center of which lie the rights and liberties of the
individual," he said.

Gorbachev also pleaded for more support of international law and justice.
International law needs "sensible, practical ties" to domestic law systems,
he said.

"This is simply a vital necessity in view of the interdependence and
increasing integration of the world," he said.

Nations should start by recognizing "the compulsory jurisdiction of the
international court in cases involving the interpretation of international
agreements. Respect for international law is inseparable from respect for its
institutions. It should cease being optional."

Gorbachev reiterated his disappointment with the failure to keep the
Soviet Union together as one nation.

"My opinion of what occurred . . . and I'm not urging that we go back to
the past [is that] unfortunately the collapse of the union has entailed
terrible consequences confirming my own worst fears and warnings," he said.

He cited a rise in ethnic conflicts and in "cruelty and violence."

"We are now in an extremely serious crisis of legality. But there are
encouraging signs and tendencies," Gorbachev said.

"Adoption of the constitution of the Russian Federation can become an
important step in the transformation of Russia into a modern law-based state.
But we should not flatter ourselves. We are still far from that goal."

After the speech, Walter Falcon, director of the Institute for
International Studies, presented Gorbachev with the Wesson Prize in
International Relations for his newly formed Gorbachev Foundation, a
Moscow-based think tank. The prize included a $10,000 honorarium, Stanford's
only payment for the appearance.

George P. Shultz, former secretary of state and professor emeritus,
recognized Raisa Gorbachev's behind-the-scenes partnership in her husband's
accomplishments, and the audience rose to give her a standing ovation.

As the audience departed, vendors tried to sell them Soviet flag pins;
T-shirts with glasnost and the Russian words for Russia and California
printed on them; and nesting dolls depicting Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Khrushchev,
Lenin and others. Souvenirs were not, however, the hot items they were during
the Gorbachevs' 1990 visit, and reactions to the speech also were less
fervent.

"We've heard the same speeches before - for four or five years in the
Soviet Union. We're fed up," said Alex Chyorny of San Jose, an emigre from
Russia now living in San Jose, who was selling the Russian dolls with another
Soviet emigre.

"We thought it was great - certainly a change from the old Russian
regime," said Anne Gallas of Mountain View.

"He was having to speak as a Russian and not a Soviet anymore," said Mike
Kinney, a senior technician at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.

"He explained some things about respecting the law and refusing to
resign," said Beth Ziegler, a secretary in the Office of Public Affairs. "I'm
going to buy his book."

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